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Press, Volume LI, Issue 8780, 28 April 1894, Page 2

Sermon. I B L E TALK. Subject— fTO-MokEOW , * Series So. 69. *• We are changed into that image from glory to glory." REPort ofTßible Talk bt Mr Worthixgtok at the Temple of Tbcth.— ScsDAr, 18th Mabch, 1894. Mankind is ah army on the marcn y the I vcfguird of to-day occupy the place which the main body will reach to-morrow. Learn •what is ia the mind of the best thinkers of j to-dey, the few who are looking ahead, and ! you will posses the common thought of the succeeding age of to-morrow. j With few exceptions the popular thought is that which is about to pass away, leaving j that "which has been scientifically demon- ; etrated, which only means that the world ia growing. This is regarded as common-place in the ordinary conditions of secular life and thought, but strange to say, in religion it id looked upon as shocking and profane. Iv all other things the past is known aa the childhood of the race, which must be succeeded by a maturity that is expected to bear riper fruit in thought and action. But in religion it is wicked to grow to manhood md " put away childish things." The religious teacher can learn nothing, because he already knows it all. He is bouiid ttiud and foot, brain and heart, by a theory that fixes ail Divine wisdom ia the past, ami threatens with infinite penalties the man who darea test it, in the Jiglit of new discovery, and declare that it does not nt the facte. Strange as this may seem at first sight, it is not to be wondered at. It is the inevitable result of a system of thought that starts wilh the ruin of the race, and postulates a supernatural revelation, which tnan is jiHt rational enough to accept, without being rational enough to criticise or reject. During the middle ages the Churcii was practically synonymous with civilisation. !She'.matched and satisfied the brain, the heart, the conscience and th«j spiritual aspiration of the -world at the time. Sticn science as we had devoted itself to con-strocting-a theory of the universe, into which the dogmas would fit. Philosophy cut its wines and limited its flight to the realm' determined 1 by the church. Art foiind no other patron—so brought the creations of its get.iue and laid them on her altars. Music sought, only to voice the pathos of the church's penitence, to win her aspiration and catch some echo of the rapture of her triumphs. Either the world's heart wa3 not tender enough!' to be checked by her cruelty of doctrine and practice, or else it took refuge in an "infinite mfstery" it did not dare to'attempt to analyse/ The world's conabdicated its right to judge that ;which,'assumed, to .be-, above all human judgment. • But the Church forgot that this is a growing world, and committed herself to a hard and fast infallibility, tfhich made change impossible, without abdicating thuse claims .-which-'\eere, the very source of her life aud power. But although she forgot that this is a worid that grows, the world djd not for that reason cdncludfe to etafad still. The muttered assertron of tftfe humiliated Galileo, though different from the sense ia which he meant it. was- the sentence that decreed ncr downfall. The Church "taught certain things abont God, man, and destiny, as having beetl revealed from heaven once for all, and that they were therefore infallibly and unchang;abry true. It staked its 'authority and rested its claims on the truth or falsehood of these teachings, upon that issue she has been,jtod, ntm is,, pn trial at. the bar. ofhuman conscience. Outside scholarly v theologians, there art few who appreciate the magnitude and significance of the , transition how going on in the Christian World, by which bur conceptions of God and man aud their relations to .one another' are undergoing a tremendous change. The profoundeet students of life a'trtV' religion are confronted by thought-compelling facts which were unknown to the earlier students, of religion and religious Washers; however zealous these, may have been, however fearless, and however fond of new truth; not being possessed of th<j facts "to which I have referred, they were of necessity unable to uttw the wQrd. ; . . » r , , • The progress of the' race, in its thouebfr,. in its pesttien,; in its evolution,' -isTthe astounding fact confronting the world today. The desire for knowledge is the first 6igh of the high-born nature of maniin& j w know is the supreme attainment, and the ultimate is for ever the dream of man. . .. ; . v: .. - : i ; . . Our conceptions fco-day of God and man, of the universe and of creation, are the moat ejcaltaecl.ia the Iristioty of the race ; they must be so in the very nature of; things, because all tlie history of the race proves thac on ward firogress, that up- ! »*i?d pushing moment. \3ffie are like travellers ascending a mountain, each day reveals to us a broader vista of Visian* A each day unveils <to us wider horizons and shows the incompleteness of our conception of yesterday, the inaccuracy of our conclusion of yesterday, and the necessity of a new conception to-day. of fact has been brought tons as the result of systematic and intelligent research, research that was willing to face 4Xsb fact, whatever the fact might fee, so that.the great issue is the of ascertamed lact against tradition , - and superstitittri. ( JSow, theconviction forced by tiiese that posizions in theological were tenable yesterday have become indefeasible. It is impossible for„• the iogical mind to-day to attempt %o defend the theological; .conclusion Of yesterday* this state of has led to that idivergency of opnaioh sl tfiat is a necessity under the turccmstaificesY .* , f presented have.baen presented to minds that were equally honest, yet minds that &ay* deduced absolutely Antagonistic results and conclusions from them. The-one line of .thought represented by the new theology of to-day has received • the statements as a divine inspiration. There are souls srith loftier ideals and more exalted concepts that have been glad to recognise tfcat'the Creator of all things was not a God of a privileged and preferred few, glad, to discover that His ear has not been deaf through all the ages to the cry of millioßß opon millions who- have preceded us upon the earth, glad to know that the concept ci God was an onward march, ever and forever. They have refused to believe £hat the soul of man was dwarfed and Stunted and limited, hence they have said, * 4 We accept this as the revelation of God, as the most fitting accompaniment of the civilisations, where we find ourselves located ior the nonce. We- recognise that God, I instead of being a magnified man, is the life I that thrills all life in the universe, as that order-loving conscious energy that has lifted the halt ing iootsteps of man up that magnificent ascent that is pictured in the lowest order of Jife, out to the God-aspiring humanity of the world." This, they say, clothes Infinity witli sanity. : But, on the other hand, they are confronted by a school, just as honest, just as sincere, just as true to what, they see and know as these first "to which I have referred, and these last say, *' This Bible contains within its lids all of religion, all of revelation,' , and they* say that God never* nttered himself in any vital way in any of the religions of the-past. - ,i .- They say that coiap»rativ* theology* fe'a dangetofts etttdy; that all of religion and religious teaching, and endangers the soul of men* >...They forget that the souls of men throughout every age, wherever they bave lefc a history, have loved and have aspired, that the history of every age, from the lowest savage ont to the highest civilised being, represent man as taming his anxious face from the wayside flower out-toward the boundless ether with a question and a prayer. They forget that man bas threaded his way, wonnded and footsore up these heights to prove his divinity. And so these make the issue. These are willing to consent that God was born with the Jewish scripture and was revealed alone injthe New Testament. This we.say is the issue as made by these'confiictiog parties, this is the commit and the death struggle, that is stirring theology to its centre. ; .\ t

There have been various cause* producing tbiff resoK, cauees which tht intelligent